The Outdoor Track & Field season started with a bit of both for Lipscomb Friday and Saturday at the University of North Florida Invite in Jacksonville, Fla..

Though the distance changed from the mile to the 1500m for outdoor track, Ryan Chastain continued his record breaking campaign. His winning time of 3:51.54 eclipsed the previous Lipscomb school record of 4:00.44 (Bob Martin, 1977) by nearly nine seconds.

Freshman Isaiah Greer also broke the school record in the race with a time of 3:59.95.

“Both Ryan and Isaiah ran great!,” head coach Bill Taylor said. “What can I say? Ryan is running at a whole different level than he has in the past. Mostly it’s confidence. He believes!

“Isaiah is already putting together an amazing freshman season. He led off our conference championship DMR and is as tough and consistent as anyone on the team. We shouldn’t forget that Isaiah broke a 33-year-old school record today too.”

Isaiah earned his own school record on Friday in the men’s 3000m Steeplechase, finishing third overall with a new school record of 9:48.56, breaking teammate Jonathan Williams’s school record of 9:52.36 from 2008. Freshman Ashton Fisher also broke the school record with a time of 9:51.58.

In the women’s 1500m Amanda Twigg continued her excellent freshman campaign, winning a tactical race in 4:52.44. She led a trio of Lipscomb freshmen women under 5:00 in the first outdoor meet of the year (Meredith McFarlin 4:58.05, Emily Longden 4:58.94).

“Amanda had to lead the whole thing and the pace was very slow through 1100m because nobody wanted to push the pace. Then Amanda put in a nice surge and eventually pulled away late on the backstretch.

“When I inherited this program three years ago we didn’t have a single woman break five in the 1500m. Last year, my second year here, we had five women break five.”

This year three freshmen women finish under five in the first outdoor meet of the season. Priya Pappu ran 5:00.12.

“It was nice for Amanda to get a win in the 1500m,” Taylor said. “In the 800m Friday night a girl cut off the leaders and knocked three women down at the 200m mark. Amanda was one of them. She got back up, shook it off, worked her way back into the field and amazingly ran 2:22 finishing fourth. It was frustrating for her, though these things happen in races. I was proud of the way she reacted and made the best of it.

“I know we aren’t where we need to be yet, but look at the progress we have made in less than three years. I’m not satisfied at all, but I am happy with how far we have come already and where we are going. We get better every year and this is going to be a great season…a terrific next step in our quest to be one of the top NCAA Division I programs in the nation.”

Two other school records were set at the meet. Sara Stephens posted a 200m time of 25.79, bettering Cree Nix record of 26.35, finishing 13th. Sara then anchored the women’s 4x400m relay that included Anika Piorkowski, Valerie Winkler and Amanda Twigg, to a fourth place finish in a school record 4:03.33.

“Sara ran very well,” Taylor said. “She has a ton of talent and range from 100m to 800m. We had three freshmen on the relay. We are a young team with a very bright future.”

The 10,000m runs were also a highlight for the Lipscomb teams.

“Both teams gained a lot of respect for the 10,000m race and how hard our three athletes worked here,” Taylor said. “They literally ran until they had nothing left. I rarely put a freshman in the 10,000m.

“In fact, we’ve only had two people even run a 10K in track since I’ve been here. Jeff is made for this race though so I made an exception. He is such a strong true endurance runner.”